GEO163 Information and Communication Skills for Geographers

The skills needed to be able to find, evaluate, summarise and critically evaluate information are all vital to success in an undergraduate degree programme, and are also key transferable skills. This module will provide training in a wide range of methods for information handling and communication. The teaching is largely in small groups, with students expected to take more responsibility for their own learning as the module progresses. Lectures provide basic tuition in skills and small group tutorials are used to develop these skills. In the second half of the course students work in groups to produce a paper on a subject of geographical interest to be presented, in both written and oral form, at an undergraduate conference.

Aims

Develop students' ability to produce written work in an appropriate academic style.

Introduce students to a range of skills for the acquisition, analysis and presentation of information from bibliographic sources.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of the unit, a candidate will be able to demonstrate:

An understanding of what constitutes plagiarism and knowledge of how to avoid unintentional plagiarism.

The ability to find information from a range of sources.

The ability to produce a piece of academic writing which draws on material from a range of sources.

The ability to design and deliver an oral presentation on an academic topic.

Outline Contents

Using academic Information Sources

Presentation of Academic Information

Academic writing skills for essays and papers

Design of material for oral presentations

Oral presentation skills

Delivery Methods

6 x 1-hour lectures; 8 x 1-hour tutorials, student conference

Student Contact Hours

16 hours

Kneale P. (1999) Study Skills for Geography students

Knight, P. G. and Parsons, A.J. (2003) How to Do Your Essays, Exams and Coursework in Geography and Related Disciplines